Yom HaShoa — Holocaust Remembrance Day (28/04)

The Day of the Disaster and Heroism of European Jewry, Yom Hashoa, commemorates the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during World War II.

Anti-Semitism, as an ideology and political movement aimed at combating Jews, arose in the late 70s of the 19th century in Germany. Gradually, anti-Semitism became an integral part of the program of political parties and a weapon in the political and propaganda struggle.

A new rise in militant anti-Semitism emerged in Germany at the end of the First World War, but it spread to wide circles of the population in this country only after its defeat and the coming to power of the National Socialists. With the exaltation of «race», «blood» and other symbols included in the arsenal of nationalist myth-making, anti-Semitism spread among large sections of the German public. The crisis that paralyzed the global economy in the 1930s led to anti-Semitism in Germany taking increasingly extreme forms.

Already during the discussion of the plan for an attack on the USSR, held at the German General Staff in the spring of 1941, it was said that the commissars who would be captured, as well as Jews, would be eliminated. On January 20, 1942, a meeting of a number of leaders of the Nazi Party and the German government apparatus was held in Berlin, at which a plan was developed to exterminate the Jewry of Europe.

The mechanism of mass extermination of Jews was put into operation and began to operate at full capacity in all European countries. The expulsion was carried out under various pretexts. Deception and means of disguise for misleading were used to the end - before entering the gas chambers.

The population of most Western European countries saw Nazi anti-Semitism as an integral part of the occupation policy of the invaders and, in certain cases, demonstrated their solidarity with the persecuted Jews. The law on preserving the memory of martyrs and heroes (1953) awarded the honorary title «Hasidei Ummot Haolam» (Righteous Among the Nations) in Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives during the Disaster to save Jews.

The symbol of the Jewish Resistance was the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. On April 19, 1943 (Nisan 27 according to the Jewish calendar), German units, using artillery and armored vehicles, began the systematic destruction of the ghetto and the destruction of its inhabitants. For five weeks, the defenders of the ghetto offered heroic resistance to the superior forces of the enemy. On May 16, 1943, the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto ended.

The Day of Disaster and Heroism, Yom HaShoa, is celebrated on the 27th day of the month of Nisan (if it is Friday or Saturday, it moves to 26 Nisan, and if Sunday - to 28 Nisan).

On this day, a mourning siren sounds throughout Israel. All activities stop for two minutes and transport stops. People freeze in respectful and mournful silence. Funeral candles are lit in many houses. The official ceremony of remembrance of the victims of the Disaster is taking place at the «Yad Vashem» memorial museum in Jerusalem. Millions of Jews living in Israel and beyond read the funeral prayer «Kadish» on this day.

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